


The Last Sunbeam Lightly Falls from the Finished Sabbath

by whatthedubbs



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Another Brother aside scene, AvocadoLove, Gen, Spirits, This is in no way canon to that story it's just an idea for a conversation that occurred to me, made-up Fire Nation law
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-04 22:24:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21205058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthedubbs/pseuds/whatthedubbs
Summary: A hypothetical scene between Agni and Sokka, taking place some time around the events of Chapter 33 of AvocadoLove's fic 'Another Brother.'Adoption goes both ways where the spirits are concerned.  Agni is NOT happy about the treatment of one of his chosen.(THIS SCENE IS IN NO WAY CANON BUT I NEEDED SOMETHING TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER ABOUT SOKKA'S CHANCES AFTER READING CHAPTER 33 OKAY?)





	The Last Sunbeam Lightly Falls from the Finished Sabbath

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AvocadoLove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvocadoLove/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Another Brother](https://archiveofourown.org/works/68573) by [AvocadoLove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvocadoLove/pseuds/AvocadoLove). 

> Title from Walt Whitman's 'Dirge for Two Veterans'

“Young Sokka,” the man fixes him with piercing gold eyes; so much like his missing brother’s. Like Prince Iroh’s. “Adopted brother of my own favored kin. Your body and your mind have been stolen from you; and your spirit balances on the edge of death.”  
  
Sokka shrugs, not letting his gaze wander. It's true, he supposes.  
  
“You were warned of the risks by your spirit-cousin Lu Ten. Yet you came here of your own free will.” The man… _Agni. He’s Agni._ Raises his eyebrows in the same inquisitive gesture he’s half-seen so many times since the sea gave him another brother. “Will you tell me why, young warrior?”  
  
_Sure. Why not? _  
  
Sokka leans back against the not-really-there trunk of the tree and sighs. “Because I had to, I guess,” he starts. “Aang needed an earthbending teacher, and we knew they’d be here. And I promised dad that I’d keep them safe.” He puffs out his cheeks in irritation. “I guess I could have told them about what Lu Ten said and sent them on their own; but I think you know how well that would have gone.”  
  
The great spirit nods in understanding. “Their hearts are sure, but without direction what use is surety?” He leans forward over his crossed legs. “And you, son of the water, have a true swordsman’s talent for seeing where you need to be. You bend events around yourself like your sister and brother bend their elements; and so the spirit of the world has the help it requires to restore balance. My sister the moon has been saved; her husband the ocean has been spared the grief of losing his wife.” Agni smiles and it feels like not-quite-sunlight inside Sokka’s head.

“I just wanted to do what was right,” Sokka says simply. “Keep my family safe. Help Aang end the war so dad could come home.” He sighs. The bitterness and disappointment he knows he should feel for his failure are muted and distant, locked away as if in vaults of stone deep in the earth. “I never really thought I wouldn’t get to see it happen.”  
  
Agni’s brow shoots up again. “Are you so certain that you are lost to the world, young Sokka?” He asks, laugh-lines suddenly appearing around his eyes. “So sure that after all you have done for them Tui and La would abandon you to the grasp of stone and earth?” The spirit chuckles. “Think, young warrior. Do the waves and tides not wear away even mountains within their reach? Do the rivers and glaciers not carve through the earth like a knife through butter? Even deep within the bones of the earth water flows and sculpts and eventually rises to the surface. Its burial only redirects its work.” Agni’s grin is sunshine-through-storming-clouds as he reaches out with a hand to tilt Sokka’s head up by the chin so their eyes meet. 

“Earth cannot crush the spirit of Water that_ knows it is change,” _ Agni’s words roar and fall like trees in a burning forest. “Just as it cannot snuff the spirit of Fire that _knows that it is life_, or still the spirit of Air that _knows that it is freedom.”_ Agni’s eyes glow like the face he shows the world as his words ring around Sokka, their echoes fading and dying around them like so many embers.   
  
“All those who command the elements carry these truths within themselves,” Agni continues; fine-boned fingers tracing down to tap over where his heart would beat if this were not the spirit world. “You are not a bender, but your enemies have taught you enough that your chi moves as one. And so you are owed the truth.” A wicked grin. “All who learn to use their chi are known to myself and my brothers and sisters. To teach the truths of the elements is the duty of every master of chi; whether they wield the elements or the blade.

"By stealing your will and neglecting to teach you these truths, your masters have failed to do their duty.” Agni looks almost gleeful as he continues, and Sokka’s eyes widen. “Your would-be masters have undone themselves on their own ambition, and so invited the great spirits to interfere as they wish.” Agni’s smirk is almost feral. “And we _do_ wish.”  
  
Sokka shivers at his tone. _So glad I’m not Long Feng right now._   
  
“Why are you telling me this, and not Tui and La?”  
  
“Ah.” The fine-boned hand is back again, tapping over his heart. “Because, young Sokka, while you may be a son of Water; you have taken into your home and heart one of my own who found himself cast out. Given him your hearth and your tribe and taught him the ways of Water.” Agni’s smile gentles. “And saved his life and spirit so that he might one day restore my children to the way they were meant to be.” The spirit chuckled. “He saved both of you that day you fell through the ice; for Tui saw one of fire save one of her own, and so gifted him the strength of my reflection from her face to survive the winter darkness; marking him as your family, as _Water Tribe,_ in his very spirit  
  
“And in return I gave my own gift to _you_, young Sokka; and to your sister and your father and your grandmother. I mark _you_ as one family with your brother; as _Fire_. And to you specifically I gave a further gift; something to set you forward when it seems all those around you surpass you in bending or status. Within you I nurtured the seed-embers of those principles Fire holds most dear: Honor. Duty. Benevolence. Respect. Courage. Honesty. Righteousness.” Agni smirks and taps Sokka’s forehead with a sun-warm finger. “And perhaps just a touch of cunning and mischief. I am a trickster, after all.”

Sokka splutters. Agni had _claimed_ him? He was _Fire?_ In front of him, Agni grins and chuckles to himself at the dumbstruck look Sokka no doubt has plastered all over his face. _Wait. Did he say…_  
  
“Trickster?”   
  
“I am,” Agni replies, sitting back proudly. “To encourage your enemies to defeat themselves is far more satisfying than crushing them by brute force, wouldn’t you agree?”  
  
“I thought fire _needed_ to fight.”  
  
“Indeed,” Agni nods. “But an honorable opponent need not be your enemy. And not all fires seek the most direct path.”  
  
Sokka feels an intrusive tug at his consciousness and shudders. Agni’s eyes turn sober.  
  
“Those that would be your masters have much to answer for,” the spirit intones; hands flickering in a dismissive gesture, banishing the intruding presence. “One wonders whether the princess ever bothered to read the the laws governing treatment of non-bending members of the royal family? It is obvious her father the pretender never did…”  
  
Sokka blinks, confused. _Royal family?_

Agni’s lips twitch. “Come now. I know you are aware of your brother’s birth family. Though perhaps not the laws which govern the _membership_ of that family, hm? I see.” The spirit nods to himself. “By law you and your family became members of the Fire Nation royal family the moment your father adopted your brother.” Agni grins. “And as members of that family you are _protected.”_ Agni holds up a finger. “No bending member of the royal family may willfully cause harm to any non-bending member. I alone am the judge of what is willful and what it not.” He holds up another finger. “Furthermore, it is unlawful to cause harm to _any_ member of the royal family, known or unknown, if one is not _of_ that family. By their own laws your mother’s killers and their commanders outside of the royal family should be cast out as traitors or executed, and Azulon’s name scorched from the family scrolls!”  
  
Agni’s pronouncement echoed through the suddenly silent garden around them. The great spirit’s eyes once more glowed with the fierceness of his worldly face. The world felt like it had shifted an inch to the right all at once for a moment before righting itself just in time for a more persistent tug on Sokka’s consciousness to jolt him off balance once more. He could feel himself slipping away from Agni’s bright garden, but the spirit’s hand lashed out to grab his wrist before he could be pulled away entirely.   
  
“Listen to me, young Sokka,” Agni spoke quickly, eyes serious behind their golden glow. “Be as the embers creeping through the coal seams and roots in the earth. They will bury your spirit in stone and think their task complete. But you are water and fire and will not be contained for long. Tui and La watch over you. The Autumn Lord and the Father of Fire watch over you. Even Oma and Shu watch over you; for fire is the heart of the earth and water it’s sculptor.” Agni leans forward to press sun-warm lips to Sokka's brow in benediction. “Accept this gratitude from the spirits, young prince,” he whispers as Sokka’s fingers slip through his grasp. “They cannot erase what you are if you do not let them.”

**Author's Note:**

> And now my rambling notes about this idea:
> 
> IDK, I like the idea of Agni and Tui/La having joint custody over Hakoda’s family because they adopted Zuko; and of Agni being 5000% done with people doing bad shit in his name. I admit this is almost entirely deus ex machina, but sue me that’s how the writers of the show solve everything at the end of every season so why not. 
> 
> I debated mentioning the physical exploitation that was hinted at when Sokka last appeared, but it didn’t end up fitting in with the flow. 
> 
> I’ve read a few other fics that mention that mind bending doesn’t work properly on benders of the other nations (and especially on all people from the fire nation). To my mind it makes sense. Mindbending, being a skill associated with earthbending, must essentially be a manipulation of the foundation of their psyche. But people who aren’t earthbenders are generally too change-oriented to make it seem like it would work on them. Water is about adaptability and redirection, so it makes sense that a water bender (or someone with a really good connection to water) would eventually find away around the mindbending. Firebenders just can’t be properly mind bent because the struggle against the new foundation disrupts their spirit enough that it just outright kills benders and won’t take permanently on non-benders. And it flat out just doesn’t work at all on people with too much Air in their family tree because it’s impossible to pin their foundations down. People not of Earth can’t have their personalities erased like Long Feng mentions; although they are changed enough when they finally make it out that their old self might as well have died (and in any case they’re killed outright once the Dai Li realize they’re coming out of it).
> 
> I imagine that there’s a corner of Sokka’s mind/consciousness that’s always aware of the things he’s being mind bent to do. Even when he’s not with Long Feng and Azula it’s in the back of his head watching himself deceive his sister and Aang and sighing because Lu Ten warned him he’d never leave Ba Sing Se’s walls. It’s not that he’s giving up, but he can’t break through the walls the Dai Li put up around the rest of his mind and retake control of himself. He knows Long Feng’s plan to erase his personality entirely and make him one of the Earth King’s guards; and he has a sick suspicion about Azula and her plans (use him as a puppet to cripple the southern water tribe/capture Aang). He’s not exactly terrified since his emotions are mostly muted by the mind bending, but he is resigned. Katara and Aang are refusing to notice there’s anything wrong past his seeming-indifference to their search for an earthbending teacher; and Zuko isn’t around with his crazy ‘something’s wrong’ senses to figure shit out.
> 
> Being nearly forced out of his body like this is making him more sensitive to spirits, though. There are a lot of them hanging around Ba Sing Se; mostly little plant and animal spirits, but a few that were probably people like him except without bodies to be tied to. And then one day while Long Feng is having his crazy dead-eyed swordsmen train him and Ty Lee is being extra touchy and he’s fed up and heart-sick and done; he gets yanked away from the warehouse and into some super fancy garden where fucking Agni wants to have a heart-to-heart chat about how Sokka’s actually a Fire Prince?


End file.
